Category: Uncategorized
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"Confused consumers, massive layoffs, shrinking newspapers — is this what Web 2.0 has brought us?"
That’s the provocative conclusion drawn by poet and blogger John F. McMullen in this piece published recently at Web 2.0 The Magazine. In it, he acknowledges the disruptiveness of the new tools and yet urges attentive patience as we see over time how the media shift affects life in our society. In addition to the…
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Wake up, Schools, and smell the 2.0!
As a professional educator ensconced in the educational-industrial complex of an American public school district, I appreciate when we get criticized from “outsiders.” Oh, sure, there’s a lot of unfair criticism regarding the supposed ease of teachers’ lives, the foolishness of their debates, and the impermeability of union contracts. I’m not interested in those. Those…
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Been reading Neil Postman again
Technopoly (1995) this time, and feel moved to respond, in defense of the future he has not lived to see. I’d like to say, “Mr. Postman, you were right–technology is changing the way we do basic human, communicative things like teach and learn, report news and express opinions. However, the genie is long out of…
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This is the 21st century dance step all teachers must learn
It’s model it, guide it, and get out of the way of the learner, gradually. It reminds me of the Tao te Ching: …the Master lets things take their courseand thus never fails.She doesn’t hold on to thingsand never loses them.By pursing your goals too relentlessly,you let them slip away.If you are as concerned about…
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Sure, you can lecture, but can you micro-lecture?
Without the heft and verbiage of long, one-way lectures, and with the portability of podcasts, a community college is using 80 second, digital summations, and the students are learning. Nonetheless, it’s a different sort of learning than my generation knew. Information transfer, wheere the student has control of the rate/repetition frequency. As one of the…
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Podcasted lectures = better lectures
And let’s face it, lectures have been useful educational media these many centuries. But new technology makes them less one-way, and, as this e-school news article describes it, more effective than traditional lectures in facilitating learning. Will it be much longer before thousands of teaching assistants and seperately-employed lecturers are replaced by the best podcasts…
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What matters most is content… er, form… no, I mean content…
Will the debate ever end? This recent Education Week article outlines the current and on-going debate over whether the whole “21st Century Literacy” movement (as propounded by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills {P21}) hasn’t gone too far! Hasn’t abandoned all content in pursuit of the latest form! Isn’t going to lead to the abolition…
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More proof of distance learning efficacy in K-12
This article shows that, at the least, distance learning solutions for K-12 schooling is no worse than regular classroom learning.As the article abstract puts it: Online virtual schools may be ideally suited to meet the needs of stakeholders calling for school choice, high school reform, and workforce preparation in 21st century skills. OK–no damage. Let’s…
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Gmail, or its like, SHOULD conquer the world
Why? Because gmail really is “intuitive, efficient, and useful” at helping people organize and communicate ideas. Because we all want a more peaceful and productive world, and gmail makes that more possible. Because as of now, gmail is quantitatively and qualitatively far ahead of the yahoo and msn/hotmail alternatives. In a tense time the world…
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More proof that online education will work
if you let it: this February 1st article describing the gains made by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Psych students over their peers attending traditional classes and labs. It’s true now at the college level because, as Mary L. McNabb puts it in her 2006 book, Literacy Learning in Networked Classrooms, it was also true with these…
The Wikiness 